Prowling in the Safari
by notepic4
Summary: Nidalee is adjusting to her new home in the animal sanctuary after many trials to find safety for her family. But she may not be the only one prowling the grassy area on the hunt... Contains Nidalee and Caitlyn, Anti Rengar and Nidalee. Rated M to be safe :)


**Prowling in the Safari**

Nidalee traveled through the grassy landscape feeling tense and homesick for the forests she had grown up in. After joining the league and passing through the trails she had to overcome in order to become a champion, she realized the danger that it posed. Not only to herself on the battlefield, but to her family as well. While she was away, her cougar family as well as other nearby packs and herds of deer they relied upon for food were constant victims to the assault of poachers and reckless big game hunters. What made it worse was that somehow, the hunters always knew when Nidalee was away being summoned, and strike when her family was without her protection. While she respected the strength and ferocity of her cougar parents and siblings, the poachers and their dreaded noise makers spitting painful shards of rock and mettle into their bodies were to powerful.

Nidalee had attempted to ask the council of Summoners to extend their protection onto her now vulnerable family, or even give them her own protection instead, but the angered summoners would not waste their _precious_ time and energy on "simple beasts that would not be participating or influence in the league of legends in any way." Nidalee was equally outraged at the prospect of their only option to protect them in exchange of allowing to use her family as an alternative to the wolf pack they had enslaved to becoming little more than mindless thralls for the champions that prowled the jungle in Summoner's Rift to prey on at their leisure and enjoyment.

She had even offered herself as a mate to that foul tempered cat-man hunter Rengar, in order to gain his additional protection for her family. But after savagely having his way with her several times until he had his fill of his latest "Trophy" he had snarled in outrage and left her bleeding and broken body alone on the cold, frost coated forest floor. His uncaring words still echoed in her mind.

"Comfort breeds weakness, you know this my_ Trophy_ Huntress. Me protecting them would only allow the runts and feeble ones unworthy of the Hunt to survive and breed more wastes of life. The strong prey upon the weak, the predator hunts their prey. If your pack is not strong enough to fight off the new human hunters and their guns, then it would better for them to all die in a glorious hunt, than allow the meek to be cuddled and spawn more worthlessness." After he had his way with her once again against the broken hollow of a tree covered in both her claw and finger nail scratches that she had carved into it to help bare the pain he gave her, the hunter pulled away and out of the broken cougaress, trailing off in a proud voice, satisfied at his accomplishment as he looked over her body coated in sever cuts and claw marks he had made to mark her as his own.

"Such is the way of the hunt, a way I thought you lived by, but it seems you are no true huntress, you are nothing more than another **trophy** I have mounted on both my _bed and wall_. I will return later to collect your head, should your body not be warm enough for me to be satisfied with..."

The cougaress had thanked the spirits of the forest many times that night for adding her in healing her body enough that she could break free of the bindings of his bolas and escape. And it was even more of a relief to discover that their species were incompatible for mating. For while Nidalee would enjoy raising cubs her own, she could barley protect her current family members, let alone defenseless young. And the thought of them taking after their father's cruel savagery was appalling, no matter how impressive a hunter he was. There was _far __more _to a mate than simply the passing on of prowess and good qualities to the next generation. _"__The heart __of the hunter __is just as important as the body that __it __beats within__.."_ her mother always told her.

Even in mating season, Nidalee was selective in her choices, as much as she could be with so few different packs of cougars around her. She learned to stay far from the League during that time as well, as more than once a summoner attempted to take advantage of the circumstance she was in. Especially when she was forced into her "Maid outfit" for the viewing pleasures of the summoners watching her.

It was only by chance that Nidalee heard of the animal sanctuary she and her family now hunted in. It seemed the Sheriff of Piltover had decided to devote more of her time to protecting wildlife. Her reasons behind her new hobby were a mystery to Nidalee however. Wither out of enjoyment of hunting poachers with her superior weaponry or because she wanted to prove that she could protect others where she had failed in guarding the lives of the citizens of Piltover from the Mayhem Sisters, Jinx and Vi, who had turned her technological civilized paradise into their playground of wrecked buildings and shattered dreams and lives. In truth it mattered little to Nidalee for now. She cared not for the reason, so long as the Safari Sheriff fulfilled her promise of protection of her family and that of the deer they needed to hunt and survive. She was also thankful to be spared the brutality she would have faced from Rengar, who often had boasted of how his lustful rampages for mates had sown his "superior hunter's seed" across much of the jungle's eligible mates while she had forced herself to submit to him in hopes of his aid for her family.

* * *

So lost she was in her reflections of what had happened to her, Nidalee was unprepared for hearing the telltale crack of a poacher's hunting rifle followed by a sharp intense pain in her flanks. She howled in pain as she turned to face the group of humans that moved to surround her. She swept out a clawed paw at the hunter had first shot her desperately, who howled in pain and dropped his gun as the claws dug into his arm. But before she could follow up with her attack, another hunter slammed the but of his gun into her head, causing it to spin from throbs of agony and disorientation.

She let out a roar of frustration as she blindly thrashed against the blurred figures who continued to pump more shards of lead into her body and taunt her inability to counter attack. After several more gunshot wounds, the battered huntress let out a finial challenging roar before collapsing in agony. The hunters wasted no time in covering her in a heavy net and dragged her back to their camp.

* * *

Nidalee was dimly aware of the putrid aromas that assaulted her nose. The smell of rotting corpses of skinned and mangled animals piled at the edge of the camp distracted her senses as the men eagerly secured her paws spread part from another and sharpened a long jagged and bloody skinning knife. Fear began to overcome her mind, and Nidalee used the last dregs of her energy to shape shift into her human form to slip out of the rope bindings and crawl to escape. But one of the hunters spotted her near limp form crawling toward the bushes and raised an alarm around the camp with a yell.

Before her weakened mind could figure out what was happening, rough hands grabbed her and tackled her body to the ground without protest. She looked into the eyes of the large hunter that gazed upon her bleeding form lecherously before gathering a bit of the pooling blood in her mouth and spiting it in his face. The man leaned back to wipe the blood from his face in rage as her raised his knife to pierce her heart. But before it could descend, a shot rang from a distance away and he collapsed in a heap. His body lay still as the bullet hole drained the lifeblood from his head. The other hunters seemed as frozen in shock and confusion as Nidalee was, as they made no move or reaction as they looked down on the dead body. Just as another hunter had come to his senses and moved to finish the job the other hunter had left, another shot rang out through the grass covered plain. The approaching hunter doubled over in pain as the bullet pierced his spine and left him immobile. Unlike with the first hunter, the few hunters remaining cried out in alarm as they scanned the area for the culprit of the deaths of two hunters. Another two hunters fell dead as a figure approached the camp. The two remaining hunters shakily held up their rifles as the woman emerged from the tall grass. She was dressed in a tight brown leather top and matching leather shorts, cut even shorter than normal to increase mobility as it hugged her thighs. She had two bands of leather strapped around her legs, where Nidalee assumed she stored more ammo. Her black boots and gloves contrasted sharply with the lighter colored clothing, which only drew the huntress' eyes closer along the body it covered. Caitlyn had arrived to save her in the nick of time, Nidalee would only hope she would survive long enough to thank her savior after loosing so much blood.

* * *

Caitlyn adjusted her hat as the sunlight reflected across her sunglasses menacingly.

"You two are trespassing on private sanctuary grounds, and hunting is prohibited here. Normally I would have arrested the lot of you, but after witnessing you mistreat this woman so cruelly, you leave me with only one choice..."

She took a breath as she leveled her rifle with the closest poacher's head. The man fumbled with his gun, attempting to reload the empty chamber as quickly as he could, only to drop the rounds on the ground and have to lean down to pick them up. This gave the sheriff ample time to line up her shot, and gave her the luxury of tossing a small trap near the foot of the other hunter who had begun to mimic his companion's actions. Caitlyn took her shot on the first hunter, who had finally managed to properly load his gun. As his body fell, the hunting rifle fired and shot the last poacher in the foot. He cried out and stumbled backward on his good leg, only to find it crunched between the jaws of a yordle trap. With both legs crippled, he could only watch as the safari protector leveled her gun with his eyes.

With a finial shot of the rifle, the last of the hunting party was dead and Caitlyn turned her attention to the severely wounded huntress. She shouldered her rifle and reached into her pack to pull out her first aid kit. After cutting the binds that still entangled the huntress' legs, Caitlyn began to examine her body to determine what needed to be treated first. Her body was covered in welts from the butts of guns striking her, and several bullet holes riddled her joints. Nidalee's body had developed a fever as her body neared going into shock. With a gentle and comforting hand, Caitlyn stroked the wounded woman's face to calm her. The widening green eyes focused slightly on her face as her breathing became forced pants.

"Come now Nidalee, surely a few stray bullets won't keep you from protecting your family will they? Not after all you have done to protect them.."

The huntress nodded slightly, and shook her head as she grit her teeth from the pain. The sheriff smiled slightly as her free hand pulled out a small syringe.

"Alright Nidalee, I am going to give you a medication that will numb the pain so I can get those bullets out and you can heal yourself alright?"

Nidalee swallowed and nodded and braced herself for the sting of the nettle, her mouth going strangely dry as she looked into the sheriff's eyes and noticed how close she was now. She winced as her body began to feel numb as the medicine did its work. She closed her eyes as she was dimly aware of Caitlyn starting to pull out the bullets, but unable to watch what was happening. After what seemed like an hour of being in a strange sense of unattached bliss without the pain coursing through her, Nidalee opened her eyes to see Caitlyn staring back at her with a warm smile.

"The bullets are out and your wounds are cleaned. Can you use your powers to take it from here? I'm afraid my extent of medical knowledge does not extend far enough to treat all of your injuries..."

Nidalee groaned and focused upon the healing spirits of the forest that swirled around her body in a gentle comforting breeze. When she opened her eyes again, her body was whole again, no longer bleeding or marked by the scars of Rengar's claws, much to her surprise.

"Thank you Caitlyn..." Nidalee whispered in a horse, dry voice. With that last whisper, she collapsed against her savior and began to drift off into sleep as her exhaustion overwhelmed her will.

* * *

The sheriff nodded and blushed slightly as the huntress nestled against her body, nuzzling her head into the sheriff's breasts and breathing slowly. She ran a hand down the huntress' back, and couldn't resist blushing once again as she noticed how close the other woman was pressed against her body. She sighed contently as one of her hands began to rub the others back soothingly after her painful ordeal.

"It was my pleasure Nidalee, and as I promised, I will protect you and yours. And unlike before..."

She trailed off as the memories of her repeated failures at Piltover in making good the oath of protecting her once great and prosperous city, and how it had driven her to all but resign from her tittle as sheriff and committing herself to protecting the lives of the animals that lived in this area.

_If I cannot protect these beautiful creatures from simple poachers and bandits, how can I hope to protect an entire city from two raging destructive psychopaths..._

She thought to herself, looking down at the huntress curled against her. She couldn't resist smiling slightly as she leaned down to kiss her forehead. The huntress mumbled something in her sleep involving her "nice, warm mousey" and began to purr loudly as she cuddled closer against the other woman. Caitlyn stifled a chuckle as she whispered in her ear.

"Rest now my little overgrown stray cat, we need to get you healed up and ready to protect your territory again..."

With a sigh, Caitlyn leaned back to rest against the ground as she adjusted to the feeling of Nidalee laying on top of her. She decided that once she had awoken, she would ask Nidalee to become her partner of sorts in protecting this area from poachers and their sort. Caitlyn knew she could not be everywhere at once, especially in such a wide area to cover and only her legs for transportation, as a jeep would only get her so far. And having someone on hand that could heal one of them if they were wounded would defiantly be useful. But most importantly, Caitlyn realized that more than anything, Caitlyn needed a companion. And with her fierce sense of protection and loyalty, Nidalee would be the perfect candidate for such a position.

The Safari Sheriff smirked slightly as she scratched under the sleeping huntress' chin. She couldn't deny she enjoyed the sound and _feeling_ of being purred on as well...

**Authors Note: This is my first fan fic I have written in long awhile so I am rather rusty. Thus I must apologize if the quality is poor or disappointing overall. I have written this rather short little story by the request of my Senpai~ who is a big Nidalee and Caitlyn fan, Clawsandspears on Tumblr. I am not sure if I will add another chapter or two, which is why I have left it a tad open ended for that reason. Note that I did change that both Jinx and Vi cause chaos in Piltover. This is because of my own AU rebel Vi that I have created. I will be writing that back story (Finally) soon :3 Anyway I hope you enjoyed my short little story, and again I apologize if the quality is not terrific. I particularly struggle with run on sentences I must confess.**


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